


Woes and Woebegones

by Anonymous



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Drabble, F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23787472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Surely, the most popular couple in school is not flirting with Cloud.  Surely not.  (Tifa begs to differ.)[quick drabble.]
Relationships: Tifa Lockhart & Cloud Strife, Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough, Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife
Comments: 2
Kudos: 50
Collections: Anonymous





	Woes and Woebegones

**Author's Note:**

> I have a high school au epic that's been sitting in my bones since the first time I watched advent children ten years ago or whenever it was, so I figured I'd throw this world building drabble up as motivation / a reminder to myself. I know the ship wars of old are being revived with ff7r having come out, but that has nothing to do with me, so.
> 
> this fic in a full form would be zack/aerith courting cloud to make an ot3, but to me tifa and cloud are soulmates no matter how you interpret that (platonic, romantic, anything in-between, etc) so... I love them being best friends who absolutely do not function without each other, regardless of all else.
> 
> anyway, idek if this would remain the tone for the whole fic. just wanted to externalize the general idea. /big shrug/

Cloud was a dork. Ask Tifa, and she'd tell you (she was his best friend, so maybe it didn't count, when it was a term of endearment). Ask Barret, and he'd tell you (but actually he just called Cloud a skinny kid or a pretty boy, and the two of them were pretty close too, so maybe that also didn't count). Ask Zack, and he... wouldn't tell you.

"I think you're cute," Zack would say, being a cool, cool junior to the dork sophomore in his honors literature class. Cloud usually mumbled awkwardly and then Zack would snort and laugh and call him 'funny'.

"He really means you're cute, because you're cute," Aerith would say in their shared advanced chem class, two sophomores in a higher level science, only one of them kind of struggling at it because he was a dork but he was kind of bad at things and had to work twice as hard to catch up. Meanwhile, beautiful, transcendent Aerith -- dating a cool junior Aerith -- wonderful, amazing Aerith -- was naturally talented at the sciences, and would often partner with him or help him study. Cloud never knew how to react to her saying that either, and would usually blush and go silent on her -- to which Aerith would giggle and hum sagely, like she knew something he didn't.

"I think," Tifa said one day, squinting at and inspecting Cloud when he relayed these happenings to her over lunch as they sat in the bleachers and watched a late block gym class run the track, their spread of chips and sandwiches and fruit and finger foods laid out in a shared potluck between them. "That the coolest couple in school has a crush on you."

Cloud rolled his eyes and bit a baby carrot in two with a loud crunch. "Yeah, right," he said, watching the kids running laps instead of looking at the open sincerity in Tifa's expression. "They're just teasing me."

"Yeah, because they like you? I think it's them flirting." Tifa shot back, throwing a balled up napkin at the side of his head.

Cloud merely hmph-ed, because he had nothing to say to that. Nothing that wouldn't rehash the whole argument. There was no way Zack and Aerith liked him like that though, not when they were already dating each other. What would that even mean? Not that it even mattered, because there was no way. ...Right?

Cloud finished off his carrot and reached for some of Tifa's potato chips with a sigh -- and Tifa sighed at him in return, snagging his apple slices and eyeing him pitifully, like he was the densest thing on the planet. He pretended he didn't notice, because it was all pretty par the course. Just a typical day at Midgar High: a self-proclaimed dork and his self-proclaimed jock best friend, sharing lunch and not seeing eye to eye on some innocuous thing. Nothing new here. Nothing new ever happened here.


End file.
